THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS' "R&R" REVIEW

There's more to life than war, taxes and politics - and a lot of it's more fun, too! That's why every WEEKEND, here at THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS, we post our opinions on some of the cultural things we're into, things we think you might also find entertaining, enriching, and stimulating. Good for "Rest & Relaxation" - "R&R".

Please check it out every week - and tell your friends. We just might turn you on to something cool. After all, the arts - ALL ARTS, not just fine arts - are a big part of what our liberty is for, and what we're fighting to defend!

ALWAYS ON WATCH: Here in the D.C. suburbs, the trees are on fire with fall color, a mixture of reds, oranges, and yellows. Many tourists and local residents knock themselves out going to Skyline Drive, but truly we don't have to endure the hassles of bumper-to-bumper traffic and head west on I-66. All we have to do is look around us here in the suburbs. The past several days, I've been taking the long way home from work so as to enjoy the beauty close to home.

RELIAPUNDIT: Have you ever read "The Last of the Just" by Andre Schwarz-Bart? You should:

From Library Journal: Schwarz-Bart's 1959 novel is a chronicle of Jewish persecution beginning in England in 1105 and ending with the Holocaust. This book was a huge hit when first released, eventually being translated into several languages. It is both a historical document and a compelling piece of fiction.

The author died last month. From an obit of the author:

Schwarz-Bart was an exceptional human being and the author of one popular and memorable novel, Le Dernier des Justes, which won the Prix Goncourt in 1959. It had taken him 11 years to compose this supreme work of fiction based on a knowledge of centuries of human suffering endured by the Jewish people at the hands of rival religionists, in particular Christians.

He was born in 1928 at Metz, into a modest Polish-Jewish family who all perished in Nazi extermination camps - mother, father and two brothers all victims of the Holocaust. Andre, however, had a miraculous escape: he was never deported, and was able to join the Resistance fighters. With a passion for reading, he was overwhelmed by Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, a great novel that he regarded as a kind of psychological thriller. ...

The novel, mixing history and fiction, spans the centuries of Jewish martyrdom until the day in 1943 on which the hero, Ernie Levy, is arrested and locked up in the concentration camp of Drancy in northern France - one of the last of "the Just" who were slaughtered in their millions, and finally met their abominable fate at the hands of the Nazis all over Europe.

Mercifully, this harrowing story is not without a searingly ironical sense of humour - one of the ultimate proofs of a man's humanity and his respect for his fellow human beings, friends or foes: If our God is split up into fragments, what meaning is there left in being a Jew? What place does Jewish blood have now in the universe?

Ironically the theme of the Shoah in all its barbarity is one attracting great publicity now in France, with Jonathan Littell's immense novel Les Bienveillantes the firm favourite for this year's Prix Goncourt. Its theme of Nazi barbarism is a salutary reminder of the horrors so vividly described in Schwarz-Bart's novel. ...

... a very moving 75th-birthday tribute was paid to Andre Schwarz-Bart three years ago, in May 2003, at the great Muse d'Art Juif in Paris. The fine classical actor of the Comdie- Franaise Denis Podalyds read vibrant excerpts from Le Dernier des Justes and two friends of the author, the cineaste Robert Bober and the psychoanalyst Marie Moscovici, made their hommages. Andre Schwarz-Bart, writer: born Metz, France 23 May 1928' married (one son)' died Pointe--Pitre, Guadeloupe 30 September 2006.

PASTORIUS:

I'm reading a book called "Blood and Thunder" by Hampton Sides. It's the story of the American conquest of the West told primarily through the life story of Kit Carson the legendary trapper, scout and soldier.

I just picked up the book today, so I'm only at the beginning, but I can say that it appeals to me already. Recently, I drove across the Arizona desert all by lonesome, listening to Miles Davis and Gil Evans "Sketches of Spain" album. It seemed as if their version of Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez grew out of the landscape in which I was driving.

The Arizona desert is stunning and even spooky with it's improbable and surreal rock formations and the cacti which stand by the road like sentries. A phrase began to ring in my head, a phrase from a poem I have not read in years; "Give me men to match my mountains." I thought who were those early pioneers, men who could have come this way, and said to themselves, "Yes, I will go even further"? The answer is, only men whose spirits are as big and as frightening as the mountains and rock formations on which I was gazing. That is why I picked up this book today. I want to understand this part of the bloody and glorious history of America. Maybe I'll write more about it next week.

PS - Ah, here we go. What kind of men were they? An excerpt from the book:

"Venturing on his first bison hunt, he learnt how to jerk the meat and turn it into a fine pemmican, and how to enjoy the Plains Indian delicacy of the still-hot liver, sliced fresh from the pulsing animaland seasoned with bile squirted from its gallbladder."

Yes, that's what kind of men they were.

POPINJAY:

I had the honor of being in attendance for the closing of the Stardust Hotel and Casino this week in Las Vegas. It's sad to see another Las Vegas landmark go, but that's progress in the nation's most dynamic city. I also had the pleasure of interviewing former musician and character actor Mickey Jones, who is just the nicest person you could ever meet. He's a real supporter of Las Vegas and Boyd Gaming and treats everyone like they're his best friend. A great American.

TEL CHAI: ...